{ }8 recommended models

Best Local AI Models for Coding

Running a coding assistant locally gives you zero-latency completions, full privacy for proprietary code, and no API costs. The best coding models for local use combine strong code generation with fast inference on Apple Silicon. Here are the top picks across all hardware configurations.

Choose Your Device

Get coding model recommendations tailored to your specific hardware.

MacBook Air

16GB RAM

Coding models for MacBook Air →

MacBook Pro

32GB RAM

Coding models for MacBook Pro →

Mac Mini

16GB RAM

Coding models for Mac Mini →

Mac Studio

64GB RAM

Coding models for Mac Studio →

iPhone 16 Pro

8GB RAM

Coding models for iPhone 16 Pro →

Top Coding Models (All Hardware)

#ModelSizeRAMBest ForQualityOllama
01Qwen3 235B A22B235B192 GBQuality, Reasoning
98
02Llama 3.3 70B Instruct70B48 GBQuality, Coding
98
03Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Instruct35B24 GBReasoning, Coding, Agent scenarios
92
04Llama 3.1 70B Instruct70B48 GBQuality, Coding
99
05Llama 3.1 405B Instruct405B256 GBQuality, Reasoning, Coding
99
06Qwen3.5 9B Instruct9B14 GBQuality, Coding, Reasoning
90
07Qwen3 14B14B20 GBCoding, Quality
91
08Qwen3 30B30B28 GBQuality, Coding
95

RAM Requirements

Qwen3 235B A22B
130 GB
min 192 GB
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
42 GB
min 48 GB
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Instruct
20 GB
min 24 GB
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
42 GB
min 48 GB
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
243 GB
min 256 GB
Qwen3.5 9B Instruct
7 GB
min 14 GB
Qwen3 14B
11 GB
min 20 GB
Qwen3 30B
22 GB
min 28 GB

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best local AI model for coding?+
For most developers, Qwen2.5 Coder 7B Q4 offers the best balance of code quality and speed on 16GB RAM. If you have 32GB+, DeepSeek Coder V2 Lite 16B delivers near-GPT-4 level code generation.
Can I use a local AI model as a coding copilot?+
Yes. Tools like Continue.dev and Codeium support Ollama as a backend. Run any coding model locally and connect it to your IDE for completions, chat, and code review without sending code to the cloud.
How much RAM do I need for a coding AI model?+
A capable coding model needs at least 10GB RAM (7B Q4 models). For professional-grade code assistance with 14B+ models, plan for 16-24GB. The sweet spot for most developers is a 7B-14B model on 16-32GB RAM.
Is Codestral better than Qwen for coding?+
Codestral 22B is purpose-built for code and excels at generation tasks, but needs 20GB RAM. Qwen2.5 Coder 7B is nearly as good for most tasks while using half the RAM. Pick based on your available memory.

Other Use Cases

ChatReasoningTranslationCreative WritingPrivacyLong Context

Explore More

Model Families

Browse by model family

All Devices

Browse by hardware

Benchmarks

Compare model performance

ModelFit Wizard

Personalized recommendations